


Between the Ending and the Beginning

by SecondSilk



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-02
Updated: 2010-08-02
Packaged: 2017-10-10 22:04:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondSilk/pseuds/SecondSilk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snape and Dumbledore in Dumbledore's office.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between the Ending and the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Archon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archon/gifts).



> Beta-ed by DAASgirl.  
> Originally posted April 2006.

"Headmaster," Severus said.

He drew the word out, giving weight to each of the three syllables. He was obviously not impressed at being called back to the school so soon after the end of the year.

Dumbledore considered drawing out the pause, but he knew Severus would not take the bait. Severus was a patient man. It was a skill hard earned at the hands of James Potter and Sirius Black, and he would not do something merely because it was expected of him.

"Will you sit?" Dumbledore offered.

He did not wait before taking his own seat. Sometimes Severus sat. Sometimes he did not. Today looked to be a day that he would not?

Dumbledore was glad to see that the old animosity and suspicion were back. It had taken years, but he and Severus had come to be able to have deep and interesting conversation. Such familiarity was a luxury they could not afford anymore.

"In the wake of the events in the Ministry of Magic…" Dumbledore began.

Severus rolled his eyes, but did not interrupt.

"… it has become very clear to me that we cannot continue as we have done. The strength of our opposing forces and the continuing ineptitude of the Ministry of Magic both work against our methods. We need to spread our forces, each member working independently towards our goal."

Severus raised one eyebrow.

Dumbledore felt proud of him for his control. Severus had been placed in a difficult situation between conflicting roles in the war and his own personal grudges, and he had never in his life supported the bureaucratic tangle that was the Ministry. But his reaction to having been proved right was slightly sardonic acknowledgment that they needed to change their plans. Severus was not a man anyone was proud of, and he did not inspire the emotion easily. Dumbledore knew that all of Severus's strength was in his self-sufficiency, and he would not belittle the man by thinking he had any ownership over his achievements.

Instead he waited a moment, giving that silence the weight of an answer. Then he silently offered Severus the bowl of humbugs. Severus sat, but did not take a sweet.

"I know what you want me to do," he said.

"Then you have prepared for it," Dumbledore replied. That was all that needed to be said. They both remembered their first discussion, sixteen years ago, and the ones that had followed.

"Are you willing to take on the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor?"

Severus's fists clenched over the arms of the chair and he blinked. When he spoke, his voice was even.

"Who have you brought on as potions master?"

That meant yes, and I know He cursed the job, and is this really the end?

"I will be speaking to Horace Slughorn," Dumbledore said slowly.

Severus did not react to that any more than he had reacted to the offer of a new teaching role. He sat still as though weighing the possibilities and risks of the situation. Dumbledore gave him a moment, but Severus made no protest.

"He is a competent teacher," he said.

Dumbledore stood in a swish of robes. He reached for a humbug and crunched it noisily while Severus pushed himself to his feet. He stood upright again as though he had never deigned to sit in the Headmaster's office. The pretense of such distain, if pretense it was, was immaculately maintained.

"Thank you, Severus, for all you have done."

Severus grimaced. He was not entirely sure what Dumbledore included in the "all". It could be that the Headmaster wished to thank him for everything he had ever done, although Severus himself wished to forget some elements of their past. And he would have to, come the end.

"If it should come to it," Dumbledore said, "you know what I want you to do."

There was no intonation to mark it as a question, but Dumbledore was waiting for an answer nonetheless.

"Headmaster," Severus acknowledged.

"I trust you to be able to recognise what is happening."

"I hope you know what you are doing," Severus said.

It was as close to questioning Dumbledore as he ever came. His voice was carefully measured to sound sincere in its hope, and Dumbledore chose to take it at face value, even as he carefully weighed the implications of this decision.

"We may not have a chance to speak again, Severus," he said. "Is there anything you want to say?"

"If it should come to it, I wish to be buried as a Prince," he said.

Either of them might die. The implication of this meeting was that one of them would.

Dumbledore inclined his head. Severus took a pinch of Floo powder to return to his home. Dumbledore crossed his office to the cupboard that held his pensieve and withdrew the memory from his head.


End file.
